The UnKnight and the Flower in Distress
by bahjoosaeyo
Summary: Scorpius was going along his merry way when he saw Rose slumped on the floor. She winds up reluctantly contracting him to help her uncover the workings of an ancient Tudor curse. While pulling of heists, researching and deceiving, Scorpius sees just how manipulative Rose can be and simultaneously develops deeper feelings and suspicion towards the most cunning of the Weasley brood.
1. Hello Again

Hello Again

Oh no, it was happening again.

Rose tried to pay attention to whatever inane thing the Deputy Blah of Blah Blah Department was saying, but then the thudding in her head started and it became increasingly harder to concentrate. Next came the splotchy black spots that made it harder to see the person she was talking with, which meant that a collapse was inevitable. Fan-bloody-tastic.

Ms. Blah of course hadn't noticed that Rose was collapsing on her and was still jabbering away. Blah blah blah.

She leaned against the wall for support only to crumple to her knees.

_Damn_, she thought. She had been having a fantastic week so far and had almost forgotten how these episodes felt like.

Blinding pain bloomed in her chest and radiated to her extremities. She vaguely heard Ms. Blah shriek in horror when Rose fell and barely registered her gesturing to someone to come to her aid.

She laid motionless on the floor, trying to gather her wits about her and was doing all that she could to not scream in pain. Someone scooped her up into his arms. _Great_, she thought sarcastically, _my knight in shining armor_. If she weren't consumed by her pain and about to faint, she would have rolled her eyes.

"Weasley. Weasley, are you okay?"

Huh. This gruff voice was familiar. She swiveled her head towards her knight only to see the last face she'd want to see in a state like this. Even in her delirious pain, she struggled against his arms and managed to get him to drop her in an unglorified dump.

She lay motionless on the floor as she concentrated on not howling in pain and her un-knight's face came immediately within her field of vision to ask if she was all right.

The pain was slowly going away, but she would have the after effects to deal with. Headache, sore throat, sore limbs, fatigue… it was all such a lovely package of symptoms. She managed a weak smirk.

"Weasley, I'm going to pick you up and apparate us to St. Mungo's."

When he moved to scoop her into his arms again, she fought as violently as she could against his advances and attempted to get up on her own. She used the wall to move her body up and weakly mumbled, "It's fine. I can get there on my own."

Her un-knight scoffed at that and said, "Weasley. Look at yourself. You can barely stand up and you're in no state to apparate without splinching yourself."

A little more strength had returned to Rose and she used it to wave her hand at the comments to dismiss them. "I can do it myself. Don't worry about me." As she looked about at the empty waiting room, she thanked the heavens that she was in a relatively remote area of the Ministry. This was the floor where the Unspeakables worked.

She attempted to stand on her own. Oops no. That was a mistake. She quickly found herself on the floor again and she had a fit internally at letting the idiot see her in such a frail state. In no planet was she ever going to let him act as her knight and she as a flowering princess in distress.

"Weasley, don't be stupid. Annoying you might be, but you were never stupid." He grabbed my wrists and helped me back up despite my weak protesting. He reached around me with one arm to grab me firmly by the shoulders and said, "Here, I'll only support you. We can side-along apparate and once we get to St. Mungo's I promise I'll leave you be."

Rose made pitiful attempts at resisting his help, but in the next second he had apparated her to the hospital.

She knew this trip to the hospital was semi-pointless. She'd go see a healer, they'd simper and throw pitying glances at her and log her latest episode. She'd go back home sans healing potion, spell or any hint that any of it would get any better. Rinse and repeat.

He helped her walk to the counter and gruffly stated, "Scorpius Malfoy for Rose Weasley here who's collapsed. She needs a healer right away; she can barely stand up or talk and she won't tell me what's wrong."

The Healer looked up and saw the two faces; one worried out of his mind and the other weak with pain. One of the faces was one that she had seen many times before.

"Of course Mr. Malfoy. Ms. Weasley, we'll be with you in just a moment. If you could lay down that empty bed back there- the one close to the window. We'll be with you in just a moment."

"I don't think you understand," said Scorpius, "She can't wait for a healer to take their bloody time to get to her. She needs immediate attention right now."

By this time, Rose had gathered enough strength to extract herself from Scorpius' vice like grip and was leaning on the counter for support.

"Healer Aldridge. I'll wait on the bed. Am I going to be meeting with Gordon today? "

Healer Aldridge smiled up sympathetically at her, not noticing Rose's frown and answered positively to her question. Rose slowly made her way to the empty bed, relying on the wall for help and refusing to look at Scorpius who was hovering around her like a mother duck.

She reached the bed, laid down and looked up at her un-knight and said bluntly, "Well, you've taken me to the hospital. Thank you very much. I believe you said you would be leaving now."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "You know Weasley, usually people would treat their rescuers with more gratefulness. I'm beginning to think that I should have just left you there on the floor."

"Maybe you should have. I'll be perfectly fine and I didn't need any of your white knight heroics. What were you doing there anyways? That floor is for Unspeakables."

"I am an Unspeakable so the question is what were _you_ doing on that floor. And next time I see you crumpled on the floor, unable to move in blinding pain I'll be sure to just leave you there." With that he walked out of the hospital and left Rose to herself.

(-)

It had been a week since he'd found her on his floor, collapsed on the ground and he couldn't stop thinking about the curious incident.

He knew that they had had their quarrels in the past and that she had a healthy dislike for him, but he couldn't believe how fiercely she had resisted his help. It had been nearly a year out of school and he thought school grudges were now behind him. Apparently Rose Weasley didn't think the same way, but then again her hatred didn't stem from average school rivalries.

She always brought out sides of him he didn't know he had.

He wasn't normally competitive or felt the need to brag, but with Rose around he somehow felt compelled to do so. When he had told her he was an Unspeakable, he hadn't exactly been telling her the truth. He was in the training program to be an Unspeakable and the acceptance rate from the training program was about 2%. Not the highest of chances. As a trainee, he wasn't allowed access to any of the cool things that true Unspeakables had and he wasn't allowed to peruse the bookshelves past row 10. Basically, he was treated as if he was a regular civilian with the two exceptions of being allowed to roam the training grounds and having limited access to the library.

He was midway through a book on Nargles in the library when the thought of Rose Weasley once again invaded his thoughts.

Honestly, she didn't have to resist his help that much. With every refusal to acquiesce to his help, she had drilled the point home that she very much disliked him. Maybe even hated him.

Scorpius shook his head and went back to his reading.

…only to have his thoughts again invaded by a certain red headed female of the Weasley clan.

_It was odd_, he thought, that the healers had known her name and that she had known the exact healer on schedule. It was also odd that she had been on his floor. He asked around with the other trainees and they had told him that for the past few weeks, Rose had done a lot of loitering on the Unspeakables floor. Overall her entire behavior was quite perplexing.

He turned his attention back to his studies only to have his attentions turned again, in record time, to a red headed mind parasite aka, Rose Weasley.

"I'll never get anything done in this state," he grumbled as he packed up his books and charmed them to their shelves.

(-)

He apparated to St, Mungo's and hunted down Healer Aldridge.

"Hello Healer Aldridge. Do you remember me?" He flashed his super charm grin at maximum power in the hopes that she wouldn't remember his mildly rude behavior a week ago.

"Oh yes, I do remember you," she flushed and Scorpius smirked internally in triumph. "You came with Ms. Weasley."

"Yes, I came with Ms. Weasley. I was wondering if you had been seeing a lot of Ms. Weasley here at the hospital. You two seemed quite familiar the other day."

"Oh well, I can't really give away confidential patient information…" she blushed again.

"Oh I didn't mean to pry and I'm certainly not asking you to give away confidential patient information. I was just wondering if you saw a lot of her at the hospital. You see, I'm planning a little surprise for her and I need to know if she's in the hospital on certain days…" It was a flimsy excuse, but Scorpius flashed his smile once again at maximum wattage and triumphed when he saw the healer waver.

"Well, I guess I'm not breaking any rules… We do see a lot of Ms. Weasley, but I don't think you're going to be able to work around her hospital visits for your surprise. She never plans her visits, they just happen out of necessity."

_Interesting_, thought Scorpius as he mulled over the information. He quickly parted ways with the healer and went back to the Unspeakables library to organize his thoughts.

(-)

Rose was pacing up and down the lobby of the Unspeakable floor. Every time she heard someone walking to her general direction, she dove behind a chair and cast a Disillusionment charm on herself and half hoped that it would be her un-knight's face walking towards her.

She hated hated _hated_ the fact that she needed him, but she had to face the facts. It was getting increasingly harder for her to handle the episodes and he was someone that could help.

Footsteps.

Rose dove behind her chair and cast a disillusionment charm.

It was Scorpius Malfoy.

Rose fretted behind the chair and in the five seconds it took for him to walk to the lobby she vacillated a hundred times on whether to greet him or to ignore him and just leave.

Finally, she decided to hell with it all and uncast the charm and popped out behind the chair to Scorpius' shock.

"Merlin! What the hell were you doing back there?" yelled Scorpius as he took a giant leap back.

"I…" she lost her nerve and she wasn't a girl who normally lost her nerves. "Er, I just wanted to…" She didn't know it would be this difficult to get over her stupid pride and actually ask Scorpius Malfoy for help. _C'mon Rose, _she told herself, _be rational. You need this git's help._

"Did you come here to thank me for that other day?"

"Hah!" she huffed. "Most definitely not."

"Then what are you loitering on the Unspeakables floor for?"

"If you must know I came here to meet with you."

"Meet with me? Well Weasley it certainly took you a while to hop aboard the Malfoy charm train, but I welcome you aboard at last."

"Ugh, don't disgust me already Malfoy. I am not in the least charmed by you; I just need to talk to you. Preferably not on this floor and certainly not in this lobby where anyone can walk in on us."

Scorpius was most definitely intrigued by this point. Perhaps if he did talk with her, he could wheedle out the details of her St. Mungo's visits and finally get her out of his brain so he could concentrate on his work. As he was pondering upon this, he was rudely interrupted by a fierce poke to his shoulder.

"Malfoy. Did you hear me? I said, are you busy?" An impatient face stared up at him.

"Right now? You want to talk right now? Well I guess I'm not that busy-"

As soon as he uttered those words, he felt himself being apparated away by Rose and he found himself in front of a very popular, casual wizarding restaurant, packed to the brim.

She silenced him with a glare and a finger pressed to her mouth and dragged, yes dragged, Scorpius to the maître d'.

Three steps before she got to the maître d', her expression changed completely. She put on a more relaxed pose and looped her arm through Scorpius', giving him a slight pinch when he protested. He could tell she just wanted him to go along with whatever she was doing so he stayed silent, observing just how well this witch could act.

"Hello welcome to The Eatery!" said the maître d' as cheerful as a jackrabbit on ten different kinds of medication.

"Hi!" said Rose equally as brightly. "Can we get a table for a party of two?" She held up her hand with a sparkly ring on it and said, "Preferably one of the tables partially hidden by those giant pillars?"

"Aw, you two are so cute together!" The maître d' was completely buying Rose's act and said, "I know just the table! If you'll follow me…" she prattled on about the specials of the day and how she hoped we'd have a very enjoyable meal here. Rose kept up the act and smile and simpered on cue while a very confused Scorpius trailed along behind her.

When they finally got to their table, Scorpius waited to question her on her very odd behavior while Rose cast a few charms to hinder listeners.

"So," he said. It was all it took.

"I know. The ring is something I carry around with me and by acting the foolish couple that are young, in love and newly engaged we fit the profile of about half the clientele at this place," she gestured around them to show her evidence. "I wasn't about to go to your place to discuss this and I certainly wasn't going to allow you to know where _I_ lived so I came here. It's not very well known, but crowded areas are oftentimes the best places to discuss clandestine topics. People will assume that we're just another couple who're whispering nonsense to each other, and even if they were curious they won't be able to hear our conversation due to my eavesdropping charms which are disguised by the general noisiness of this place."

"But it seems-"

"Unnecessary? A couple in love are the stupidest people in the world. No one wants to listen to a couple prattle on about how much they love each other so no one will even attempt to listen to our conversation. The best place to hide is in a couple."

"Why did you-"

Rose cut him off, anticipating his question. "I needed an Unspeakable. I'm smart enough to know you couldn't possibly be a true Unspeakable right now and that you're probably just a trainee who can't do anything-"

"I _can _do-"

"Whatever, no use protesting. It's common knowledge that the trainees don't get access to anything but I know you have the right turn of mind towards the sneaky. Don't quark your eyebrows at me. You might have been in Ravenclaw with me, but I know you have devious sneak side of you which I ordinarily detest, but might be useful to me at the moment since-"

"If you would just-"

"No I will not just. Shut up and pay attention Malfoy because as much as I hate, loathe, despise the idea of actually relying on a stupid overinflated egotistical coward like you, I actually have no choice and-"

This time Rose was the one interrupted, but by the waitress and Scorpius again saw how quickly she could change faces.

"Hello, what can I get you two?" She smiled at the young couple.

"Well," said Rose, moving to hold Scorpius' hand on the table, "I think we're going to have the lover's special. Soup for me, and for you honey?" she kicked him under the table.

"Well honey," he said, looking the part of loving fiancé completely, "I think I'll have the soup as well and we can get the chocolate soufflé for dessert."

"My favorite!" Rose trilled.

"Always for you."

With a few more comments from the waitress about how a "cute" and "completely adorable" couple the two were, she finally left. The minute she crossed the boundary of the charms, Rose began talking again.

"As I was saying, I have no choice but to rely on your egotistical self for some information since only an Unspeakable can get me this and no self respecting truly inducted Unspeakable would ever say aloud that he or she is an Unspeakable, I'll have to make do with you, the idiotic trainee who probably won't make it past training."

"Excuse me, but-"

"Fine, fine," she waved her hand as if (key point being "as if") she was declaring defeat. She then barged on with her babbling insult train and rolled over whatever Scorpius was about to say. "Maybe you will make it past training. I don't really care if you do or you don't, but I do care that you have access to the Unspeakables library. I need some information from the library and seeing as how I'm not really an Unspeakable, I can't exactly waltz in and peruse the shelves. So here's the deal: I need information from the shelves. What am I going to have to give you so that you'll do this for me?"

Finally, she was giving him a chance to talk. He made to lean back in his chair, but was stopped by the fact that Rose was still holding his hand. He lifted up their joined hands with a question in his eyes.

"I cast eavesdropping charms, not blinding charms. If we don't keep up the pretense of at least looking like a couple in love, someone might think something's off and we don't want to bring any suspicion."

"I know you're not an Unspeakable- wait, what are you anyways?" asked Scorpius.

"I'm a freelance curse breaker."

"Oh, freelance curse breaker… so do you work for Gringott's?"

"They are one of my many clients. Stop asking about my work life and hurry it up with what you were going to say. What will it take for you to bring me what I need?"

"Okay first of all, it's kind of universally known that you're supposed to be _nice_ when asking for a favor. Merlin. Also, aren't you a member of the legendary Weasley clan and niece to the great Harry Potter? Can't you use your family connections to get the information you need? Surely the savior of the wizarding world could help you out a lot more than… how did you put it? "a stupid overinflated egotistical coward" like me."

This was actually puzzling young Scorpius. Rose had a very extensive, powerful family. Though her family had taken great pains to keep her name and appearance out of the press, everyone knew that the daughter of Ronald and Hermione Weasley was named Rose and Scorpius was certain that all it would take for her to the information she needed was to say she was Rose Weasley. The secretary would probably call her immediate superior, who would call her immediate superior, who would call his until it got to the Department Head of the Unspeakables who would get a call from the Minister of Magic to give young Rose whatever she needed.

"Let's just say that I don't want people to know about the information I need."

"Does this have anything to do with your frequent trips to the hospital?"

Rose's grip on Scorpius' hand became three times stronger and she muttered, "Mr. Malfoy, have you been _following_ me?"

"No, I haven't been _following _you, you paranoid freak. I happened to be at St. Mungo's and saw that healer that was at the counter and we got to talking. She mentioned that you were a frequent visitor." That was sort of the truth, he reasoned with himself.

"Oh," she answered and her grip on his hand loosened a bit. Then she muttered something about how she'd have to have a good talk about healer-patient confidentiality with Healer Aldridge before being interrupted again by the waitress who had brought their soups.

"So what kind of information would you want from the Department of Mysteries?"

"If you want to know you're going to have to agree to get me the stuff I need."

"That's preposterous. You're asking me to agree to get you confidential material from the Department of Mysteries without knowing what you want and why you need it."

"And I'm also saying that I'll make it worth the risk. I'll give you whatever you want in return."

"Weasley. Haven't you heard that you never say that phrase to a man?"

"What phrase?"

"'I'll give you whatever you want.'"

"What? Oh Merlin. Don't tell me you're lecherous on top of being a pretentious dick."

"I'm not saying that! Don't jump to conclusions, I was just saying that it's not a good idea to go around saying that sort of stuff to people."

"Well fine. I'm saying that I'll owe you one. And before you say anything I mean within reason."

"You could find the excuse for anything not to be reasonable. If you're expecting me to take such a huge risk, I'll want to know that I'll be getting a proper return."

Rose gave an enormous sigh and trained her brown eyes at him, desperately trying to convey the truth in her words. "I promise that I'm not trying to pull one over on you. Tell me what kind of favor you want and I'll make it happen as long as it's not completely against the law. As you noted before, I have an extremely powerful family. I can most likely get you anything you want, even an acceptance to the Unspeakables program."

"Acceptance into the Unspeakables program? Guaranteed?"

"Absolutely."

"And no one could know that I made… arrangements to get into the program."

"Of course."

He mulled it over. The entrance rate was impossibly low and as much as he hated to admit it, chances that he was going to be accepted were very low. Extremely low.

"You have yourself a deal."

After all, getting the texts that Rose wanted couldn't possibly be more trouble than getting through the Unspeakables program.

The waitress came with their entrees and the two quickly finished up the meal, acting like a couple when needed, and throwing biting comments at each other when no one was looking.

(-)

Scorpius sat back in his flat as he ruminated on what Rose had detailed. She had been extremely vague and he had also learned that she was very paranoid. All he knew at this point was that she went to the hospital often and needed information that only the Department of Mysteries could give her and that somehow the two were connected.

She was so paranoid that she told him that she wasn't going to tell him a thing until she could arrange for him to sign a binding agreement. She didn't go as far as requiring him to make and Unbreakable Vow, but she had basically settled for the second best thing and promised that if he broke their agreement, she'd use her considerable family connections to arrange for a lifelong prison sentence in Azkaban for him and his family. When he mentioned that this was quite corrupt behavior for someone from such an illustrious background, she had smirked.

He'd tried to charm her in school for it had made sense to his adolescent brain. By fifth year he was fairly popular for his decent looks and smarts. Being in the same year, it made sense for him to befriend her and make the right connections for later on in life, but no matter what he tried, she had refused his attempts at friendship. It seemed that they just couldn't get over that incident in the past. It probably didn't help that Rose was also known for being the coldest of the Weasley clan, but even that excuse wore thin when she became equally as popular as he in seventh year. He just had to face it in Hogwarts; he and Rose were never going to be friends.

By the time he has resigned all efforts to win friendship with Rose in school, he had developed a taste for the bickering fights they had. They had kept his wits sharp and had honed his biting insults. Yes, thanks to Rose Weasley, he had not only learned the limits of his charm, but he had also learned how to utterly piss off a human being.

He was curious as to what information she needed and why she couldn't turn to her family, but he came to terms with the fact that he wouldn't know anything till he signed. Ordinarily, he'd be a sneaky bastard and hunt down whatever information he needed, but observing Rose's paranoia firsthand, he knew that there wouldn't be the slightest chance to ferreting out anything she didn't want him to know. He turned over in his bed and settled down for a deep sleep.

* * *

AN: Meanwhile, Rose... Ha! You'll find out what's happening on her side of the story next chapter! This is a bit of a break from my usual fare, but I was inspired! There's a whole lot more to this mysterious illness of Rose's! Please review and let me know what you thought.


	2. Classy Slag

Classy Slag

Rose got up from her bed; it was pointless getting in when she didn't have a chance at sleeping tonight. She went to her cabinet and pulled out a bottle of wine. If she was to be alone with her thoughts tonight, she might as well do it with a glass of wine.

She poured herself a glass and thought about her deal with the devil's minion she had made tonight. To make herself feel better, she went and fetched a bit of parchment and a self inking quill and wrote out her arguments in a clear, logical manner.

...

Why I Asked for Scorpius Malfoy's Help and Why It's Not a Terrible Idea

1. I asked because I couldn't ask my parents or anyone that might talk to my parents about my condition.

2. Scorpius Malfoy and I don't have the best relationship, which means he won't care enough to even think about telling my parents.

3. I'll make an ironclad contract stipulating that he can't tell anyone about my condition and that if he doesn't deliver on his promises, I am not obligated to him and he still can't talk about my condition.

4. Scorpius Malfoy had the right shifty turn of mind to attempt to illegally copy documents he probably shouldn't be looking at.

5. If he's willing to do that, he might be willing to pilfer some illegal potions for me.

6. Yes, I'll have get him fully inducted into the D of M but that's a small price to pay compared to what I'm dealing with.

7. My episodes. My condition. This stupid, bloody, completely out of the Dark Ages curse. I thought I'd be able to handle it, but I obviously can't and the only things that can help are probably in the Department of Mysteries.

8. Yes, Malfoy is a little shithole, but I think he's a little shithole I will _own_. Which makes him an asset, not a sore pain on my bum. (I must keep telling myself that over and over so I don't hex him the next time I'm forced to speak to his bloody face.)

9. I've just about tried everything else. I've exhausted three major wizarding libraries, all my secret sources, the useless staff at St. Mungo's research wing and everything points to the Department of Mysteries.

10. I'm on my third glass of wine, and I realized that ever since my condition has made sleep impossible (unless I've just had an episode), I've been drinking an awful lot of it and it's been a drain on my finances to keep my cabinet stocked with wine.

11. I'm tired of being tired all the time.

...

Being sufficiently sloshed, Rose made her way to her bed in the hopes that the horror dreams that had been plaguing her wouldn't come again or worse, dreams that recollected the time when Scorpius Malfoy had seen her at her most vulnerable.

(-)

Scorpius got an owl two days later from Rose.

...

Malfoy,

Meet me at Hogsmead at 9:00pm tonight. I don't care what you've got going on, this is more important.

...

Even though she hadn't signed it, it was obvious whom it was from. He couldn't help but laugh at the last sentence. Out of all the Weasleys, she had the reputation of being the coldest and she certainly didn't disappoint preconceived notions with this letter. Lucky for her, he hadn't had any plans for tonight and even luckier for her, he was too damned curious about her situation to even attempt a no-show in retaliation for her rude remark.

Rose Weasley had been the main thing occupying his mind in the past two days and when he wasn't actively thinking about her, he was thinking about how to complete her assignment. He noticed security glitches in the way the Department of Mysteries' library was handled and noted them all down to make sense of it later.

(-)

_Crack!_ Scorpius arrived at the apparition point in Hogsmead. He looked around at the familiar site and was boggled at the fact that she had chosen the familiar school haunt to sign some very secretive documents.

He began walking towards the Three Broomsticks out of habit when he suddenly received a quick kick to the shins.

"What th-" he began to yell and keeled over, only to be muffled by a pair of delicate pale hands.

The owner of said hands whipped around to face him, slapped him, and quickly muttered, "Okay Malfoy, you're going to follow what I say and do. Got that?"

He nodded up and down; her hands were still on his mouth.

"Good," she said as she took her hands off his mouth. "Sorry for the kick by the way. It was the only way I could think of to get your attention."

"Really? The only way? I can list a dozen other ways you could have gotten my attention."

"A dozen other ways? Fine, list them for me right now," she challenged, jutting her chin out slightly as she walked through the dark town.

He followed her lead and counted off ways on his fingers. "You could have called my name, just walked up to me and tapped me on the shoulder, put up a little sign at the apparition point to let me know where you'd be, tell me in your owl beforehand where to meet you, given me a little wave when you came in my field of vision, charmed-"

"Okay, okay," she said interrupting him. "I got it. I won't kick you next time. Merlin, you really know how to prattle on."

Scorpius stared at her, seriously put out. "_I _prattle? _Really? _Should I remind you of the other night when I could barely get in past your endless parade of words? You wouldn't shut up and every-"

"Okay, okay. I apologize for my endless parade of words yesterday. Now will you please try to shut up and seem as inconspicuous as possible? The plan is to go to to Honeydukes and sneak into one of the underground passageways through Hogwarts-"

"Hogwarts?" Scorpius interrupted, flabbergasted at the idea of going back to school to discuss top-secret things.

"Yes, Hogwarts. I'm assuming that you've had some training on slinking around corridors without being caught, plus I've got this to help us out." She pulled out a tattered bit of parchment and held it up like a prize.

Everything went according to plan and Scorpius had no doubt that she had spent the past two days stalking out the crew at Honeydukes to see when would be the best time to sneak in and out. They quickly made their way into Hogwarts when they both put on a disillusionment charm and carefully sneaked their way around the castle with Rose furtively checking her parchment.

Rose finally stopped Scorpius in front of a wall and paced up and down the short corridor muttering, "A place where no one will bother us and is utterly top secret and impervious to eavesdropping spells and devices," over and over again until a door popped up.

As soon as they went inside, Rose pulled out a chair, sat on it and nodded at Scorpius to do the same. The minute his ass was in the chair, the instructions began.

"So basically I need you to find information on Catharine of Aragon, Henry the Eighth's first wife. I could also use information on his other five wives and their children, but first and foremost I'll need information on her."

"Er… Catherine of what? And was it Henry the Eighth? Eighth of what?" Scorpius had absolutely no clue who these people were.

"Urgh," groaned Rose as she ran her fingers through her hair, "I know you're a pureblood member of wizarding society, but please tell me that you know that there's royalty in the Muggle part of England."

"Er yes. I vaguely recall something like that existing…" said Scorpius. In actuality, he didn't know a thing, but he didn't want to look like an fool in front of Rose.

"Oh Merlin. Come on! We went over it in History of Magic a couple times. There were a few prominent members of court who were wizards and witches back in the day. You don't remember these lectures?"

"Of course I remember these lectures!" said Scorpius as indignantly as he knew how, even though he didn't recall them the slightest. "I was in Ravenclaw with you, I'll have you know. I'm not the idiot you make me out to be."

"Good. Then I don't need to go into detail about the Tudors."

Scorpius mentally filed away the term "Tudors" to look up later.

Rose looked at his blank face and sighed. "Well, just to be certain I'll give you a brief summary of what I'm looking for. So you already know that Henry the Eighth was famous for having six wives in the desperate attempt to have a son. Catherine of Aragon was his famous first who's daughter was Mary, aka Bloody Mary, and she was shoved out of favor to die so he could dally with Lady Anne Boleyn. Little did he, or anyone really, know, Catherine of Aragon was a witch and with her dying breath, she cursed Henry and the rest of the Tudor family.

"Since she had never really studied her craft, being a staunch Catholic in a very Catholic ant-witch country, the curse she used isn't really known and is in someway tied to the deeper, older magic. This curse used blood, spite and jealousy and was powerful enough to last quite a while.

"Catherine's curse was so powerful that it lead to the end of five more wives, two were beheaded, one died of sickness caused by the curse, one was annulled before the curse could hit her and one outlasted the king. The only son Henry managed to have soon died after coming to the throne, but little did Catherine know that the curse she cast on Henry would affect her own daughter, Mary Tudor who history remembers as "Bloody Mary."

"The curse drove Mary mad and she ruled a bloody country filled with persecution and religious strife. She had false pregnancies and eventually died of the curse."

Scorpius was fascinated by this history. If there had been evil family curses, beheadings and multiple marriages in the history that had been taught at Hogwarts, he would have paid far more attention in classes.

"So is the case you're working on about the curse? If this curse only affects Tudors, then why are you the one that's fainting right and left? Are you a member of the royal house?!" Oh man, if it turned out that either the Grangers or Weasleys were members of royalty, even Muggle royalty, his father would be royally pissed.

"No don't be silly, of course I'm not a Tudor. Now, shut up and stop interrupting. I'm not done with the mini-history lesson I need to give since _someone_ doesn't know basic history."

Scorpius shut his mouth and leaned back to listen. There was no one but Rose who could make him feel as if he was actually inadequate or unintelligent.

"Now, where was I? Oh, that's right- Mary had just died. So Queen Mary dies and the curse is supposed to pass on to the next in line, Elizabeth, but lucky for her she had a young, powerful, enterprising wizard to aid her, Robin Dudley 1st Earl of Leicester. It's rumored that he pined after Elizabeth and that he was perhaps her secret lover, but there's no hard evidence. Either way, he recognized the curse that Catherine had put on the family and had enough power of his own to perform a countercurse that would last hopefully forever.

"Unfortunately for the Tudors, Catherine's old magic of hate has proved to last a lot longer than Robin's and even though the countercurse has lasted for over 500 years, it's stopped working. So, what I need you to do is to scour the library for any and all information on Catherine of Aragon, the Tudors, old magic and in particular old family curses. Regular wizarding libraries don't have anything about this stuff, even in the restricted sections and I've been lead to believe that the Department of Mysteries might have what I need."

"So what you're telling me is that there's an ancient evil curse on a line of Muggle royalty and it's so powerful that's it's lasted beyond 500 years?"

Rose's eyes sparkled as she teased, "I thought you said you paid attention in History of Magic!"

Scorpius, slightly taken aback by Rose's smile, replied, "I did pay attention in History of Magic and I'm fairly certain there was never a story like this!"

"We glossed over it in fourth year, I believe," Rose said with a flutter of her hand to dismiss his statement. "Anyways, I need you to get me any material you can on this. And I'm not talking shelves 1-10 here; I want the real stuff shelves ten and beyond."

Scorpius eyes practically popped out of his head, "How do you know about the shelves restrictions?!"

"Oh, word gets around here and there… and I have my sources, which you're now a part of." She gave him another smile, but this one didn't bring a burst of spring happiness into Scorpius' chest. No, this smile was a much more sinister kind and brought a feeling of winter dread. There was a reason why Rose was known as the Weasley you didn't want to cross.

"Well anyways," she continued, "Now that you know a little more about what I need, let's get to signing this damn thing."

"Well now that I know what you need, there's nothing keeping me here. I could just run away and not sign your document that binds me to you," Scorpius pointed out. "It was a bit stupid of you to tell me everything before you made me sign to secrecy."

Rose gave him another smile; this one was filled with promises of exquisite torture. "Now Scorpius. You've gone and botched everything up!" she said in a light tone that completely clashed with the stirrings of anger in her eyes. "I was trying to establish a base of trust here. I find that most of my operatives tend to work a bit harder when they feel that I trust them. Was I wrong to extend this trust, Scorpius? You couldn't possibly be thinking about betraying me, could you?"

Scorpius gulped. What had this woman been up to in the past nine months that she had "operatives" working for her? "I was merely pointing out something that I thought to be a flaw within your plan," he said smoothly. "I wouldn't dream of not signing, after all, you promised me a favor."

She thrust two identical documents in front of him to sign. He gave it a once over and quickly signed. They shook hands, sneaked out of Hogwarts and Hogsmead and parted ways.

Rose sighed in relief internally. Thank goodness he hadn't caught the little clause that basically said she owned him until she was done using him. All it had taken was a little sleight of hand to distract him from the volatile clause.

(-)

Scorpius had the book about Nargles in front of him again at the library. However, this time he wasn't actively trying to read and was instead using the book as a cover for his real homework.

He was trying to discover a crack in the security of the D of M's library that he could exploit.

One librarian with a sharp eye guarded the library, but he was also helped by a number of charms. Every single book was charmed so that it couldn't be taken out of the premises. Students were occasionally allowed to use a copying charm for certain passages, but needed to get those charm approved by the librarian from hell.

Scorpius had attempted to copy a relatively harmless passage about Nargles without asking permission to see if he could get away with it, but within seconds, Benjamin the Librarian (the way Benjamin wore his title, you knew he capitalized it in his head) had appeared with an enchanted bit of parchment showing his name and charm in red. Benjamin the Librarian yelled a bit, Scorpius apologized, but the most important part of the exchange was when Benjamin muttered the charm that erased Scorpius' name from the list.

Scorpius already knew that the way to get into the restricted section was by using one of the little personal cards that were enhanced with charms and restrictive spells. Only Benjamin the Librarian and a few of the top researchers at the Department of Mysteries had those cards.

He stared at the traffic in the library for six hours, occasionally writing notes on a bit of parchment charmed to look like notes on Nargles and tried to figure out the pattern of the workings of the library.

He left to stretch his legs and wandered outside when three birds attacked him.

...

Malfoy,

Any progress? I'd like to meet to discuss. I'll be done after 8:00 tonight and I know you're done with training after 7:00. Let's meet where we met last time.

RW

M,

Please owl back to let me know that you've received my last owl and to confirm that you are coming tonight.

RW

M,

It's a part of your contract to respond to my owls no later than six hours after it's arrival. You're getting dangerously close to this time limit and if you exceed it, you'll be forcing me to do things I don't really want to do.

RW

...

He wanted to roll his eyes at the last statement, but to be honest, Weasley had managed to scare the pants off him the other night and he didn't feel like getting on her bad side.

...

Weasley,

Owls aren't allowed in the library, hence my late response. I'll see you tonight. I think I've laid out a decent plan.

SM

...

(-)

They were once again in the Room of Requirements with a large piece of parchment between the two of them that had a rudimentary map of the library that Scorpius had drawn out. To Rose's surprise, Scorpius actually wasn't that bad of an artist and could probably have made something of himself if he chose to go that way, but she didn't say any of her thoughts aloud. She only allowed herself one small secretive smile of surprise when he began drawing out the plan.

"So I figure the first thing we need to do is to get a pass for the restricted section." Rose nodded in agreement to Scorpius' statement. "I figure what we can do is filch Benjamin the Librarian's card, copy it and replace his original card on him. Now, the cards have loads of enchantments on them and it would be impossible for us to recreate them. We need to use the copy to recreate the card as best we can and I'll research some of the basic charms that the cards come with and attach a few to it. Then, we'll pilfer the original card off of Benjamin again, replace it with our credible fake and use his to access the restricted section when we need to do so."

"Even if we do put a few rudimentary security spells on the card, don't you think Benjamin the Librarian is going to know that it's a fake when he won't be able to access the restricted section?" Rose had picked up Scorpius' habit of referring to Benjamin by both his name and capitalized title.

"Well I have a plan for that. We'll cause some sort of magic catastrophe that causes multiple charms to go out of whack. I'm thinking a potions accident since those are always unpredictable and straight up weird. When his card doesn't work, he'll probably go to security and have them re-enchant the card."

"Hmm…" Rose pondered. She had to admit, Scorpius was a lot more sharp than she gave him credit for. "This sounds like it could be the beginnings of a good plan. One thing though, I noticed you kept on saying "we.""

"Ah, well yes. In order to for my plan to work, I'm going to need you, a hot female, in it. You see, Benjamin the Librarian is an awfully lonely guy…"

(-)

Rose felt fairly ridiculous in her outfit. Scorpius had insisted that she needed to look "librarian chic" whatever that meant and they had raided the Room of Requirements' closet.

She was now waiting in the lobby in a short skirt with a loose button up tucked in. She was wearing black glasses and her hair was loose over her shoulders. Her make up was done in a way that made it difficult for her to even recognize herself in the mirror. Her eyes were prowling for a man fitting the description of Benjamin the Librarian. According to Scorpius, he took a little break everyday at 3:00pm to grab a mango-papaya smoothie from the café and he wore the same black glasses she was wearing. She swept her gaze left to right like a Seeker hunting the Golden Snitch when she spotted her target.

She made a beeline for him and "accidentally" bumped into him, causing a bit of his smoothie to splatter on her shirt.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" she tittered. She conjured up a handkerchief and began dabbing at her chest. Benjamin the Librarian's eyes immediately went to the area she was dabbing and Rose smirked internally. She gave him a little peek of her lace bra and saw his jaw drop just the slightest. Men were just too easy to manipulate.

"Oh no, it's my fault," said Benjamin when he looked her over. "I'm so sorry about your blouse!"

"It's fine, it's fine!" she said as she giggled. She muttered a quick cleaning charm and said, "Look, it's good as new!" She turned to Benjamin and introduced herself. "Hi, my name is Jane and you are…?"

"I'm Benjamin." He awkwardly tried to shift his smoothie and books to one hand so he could shake her hand, and Rose smiled up at him acting as if she was charmed by the bumbling act.

"Well Benjamin, I'm guessing that you were trying to get to the lift?" she said giggling again and tossing her hair back.

"Well yes I was," he answered back nervously.

"Well then I'll accompany you there. I was also trying to get to the lift before I got splashed with your smoothie!" she laughed again. Merlin, she was already annoyed by the sound of her stupid giggle, but she could tell Benjamin was already charmed by her.

She performed a bit of wandless magic and hexed the few people who were trying to catch the same lift as her, but managed to smile up at Benjamin whenever he glanced at her.

They both got in the lift and when Rose saw him reach over to press the button, she made sure to brush her arm across his and place her finger mere millimeters from his. "Look at that!" she giggled. "I guess we're going to the same floor!"

Benjamin cocked his head in curiosity. "I don't recognize you. Are you from the training program?"

"Oh no, I'm visiting a friend in the training program."

Benjamin's shoulders slumped. It was obvious he thought that she was visiting a boyfriend.

"She said she'd meet me for tea, but she just memo-ed me saying that she's going to be half an hour late… what do you do?"

Benjamin perked up the minute he heard that her friend was female. "I'm the Librarian."

"Oh!" she said in an overly surprised tone. "You're Benjamin the Librarian!"

"Er… yes I am." He looked a bit more nervous now.

"I don't mean to scare you! I just heard about you from my friend in the training program. She didn't mention how cute you were!" She giggled again and added a seductive wink for good measure.

"Er…" he began fidgeting with his hands, completely overwhelmed by this female.

"I like your glasses." Rose said with a grin and she took the opportunity to touch his glasses and brush her hand down his cheek. "They're just like mine."

"Thanks… I like yours too. I, uh, I guess that means we've both got good taste," he said, attempting to actually talk this time.

The elevator dinged open to the lobby of the Department of Mysteries.

"Well…" said Rose. "I guess I'll have to wait here for my friend... all by myself..."

"Umm… I would offer to keep you company, but I have to go back to work…"

"Oh well that's too bad," she said as she brushed her hand against his arm. "And I was so happy getting to know you. I wish we could talk more…" She let her finger trace down his arm and she saw him take a huge gulp of air to calm his nerves.

_Come on_, she thought. _Come on already. Stop being a nervous ball of piss and do it already!_

"Well, if you don't mind, you could wait with me in the library until your friend gets out."

_Success!_, she thought as she answered, "Oh that would be lovely!"

As he turned around to lead her to the library, Rose's hands snaked ever so lightly across his waist and pilfered his card. She moved the card from her right to left and held it lightly between two fingers behind her back. She walked into the library with Benjamin and as quick as a cat, the card was transferred from her fingers to the hand of a hardworking trainee, reading a book on Nargles.

When Benjamin settled behind the library counter, Rose made sure to lean over to talk to him on his right side away to prevent him from looking at his enchanted parchment.

Now, Rose wasn't a prude, but she certainly wasn't a tart and what she was doing right now was certainly tarty behavior. She leaned over the counter at just the right angle so that a hint of her black lace bra showed. She had unfortunately practiced the angle with Scorpius for twenty minutes to master it yesterday night.

_Yesterday, Room of Requirements. _

"_I assure you, I can act like a tart if needed."_

"_Well then show me." _

"_I'm not going to show you right here!" _

"_Well then I don't think we can pull this off! We need to make sure that he thinks he had a chance with you and that you're easy." _

"_I can act like a slag."_

"_See, you're not getting the essence of Benjamin the Librarian here."_

_She huffed. "Well then Scorpius Malfoy. Why don't you instruct me on the essence of Benjamin the Librarian?"_

"_He's looking for a tart, but he fancies himself an intellectual man so he wants a classy slag."_

"_A classy slag," she repeated._

"_Yes, a classy slag. A girl who's not afraid to show a bit of leg, but who's not dressed like a prostitute. He wants her to be somewhat classy, but in the end he's got to know that she'll be easy to bang. No man is going to work to impress a girl if he thinks sex isn't in the picture." _

"_Fine. Classy slag. I can do that." _

"_Now getting in the library is a task in itself, but you have to make sure to keep his undivided attention when I'm copying his card." _

"_Don't worry about that," she said. "I'll be so charming and slaggy that he won't be able to look away from me." _

"_I'm sure of it."_

"_It's nice to have your vote of confidence."_

"_It's not you I'm confident in. It's you're assets," he said, pointing to her chest._

_Now normal girls would have thrown a fit and probably have slapped Scorpius Malfoy, but Rose was anything but normal. She was the cold Weasley, the logical one. The one with the most ambition and the one that the family was afraid would be placed in Slytherin. _

_Rose looked at Scorpius and asked point-blank, "So you think I should show him my breasts?"_

_Scorpius blushed slightly and silently cursed his pale face that showed every bit of emotion and replied, "Maybe the top of your bra? We're going for classy slag here so we can't show him everything." _

_To ensure that her "classy slag" façade was perfect, the two had proceeded to practice the exact angle of her lean in order to offer Benjamin the Librarian, but at the moment Scorpius the Trainee, the perfect view of her bra. _

Obviously the work had paid off. Benjamin's eyes were glued to her chest as she leaned over and talked his ear off about something inane and utterly pointless. The minute she saw Scorpius' name appear on the enchanted parchment, she turned a question to him and used his five-second befuddlement to charm Scorpius' name off the list.

Within seconds, she felt the card slip into back into her fingers and she tucked the card into the back pocket of her skirt.

"Benjamin?"

"Yes?" he answered as he dragged his eyes from her chest to her face.

"You look tense."

"I do?"

"Yes, you look like you could use a massage."

"I do?''

"Mmhmm," she said as she walked around the counter, "I'll give you one right now. I'm great at massages."

She walked behind him and told him to relax and shut his eyes. He obeyed like a little puppy and she slipped his card back into his pocket while giving him a back rub.

She looked up at Scorpius and for a second she took off all the masks she wore. Tarty Rose was gone, Scary Rose was gone, Rose the Manipulator was gone and she was just Rose who was smirking in pure triumph at Scorpius.

He smirked back and gave the slyest wink he knew how and tapped his finger on his parchment to indicate that he had copied everything well.

"Oh my! Look at the time! I have to go meet my friend!" she said as she scooted away from Benjamin as quickly as she could.

"Has it already been thirty minutes?" he asked, confused by the rapidity with which she was leaving.

Rose was at the door of the library now and she called out, "Unfortunately yes! I guess I'll see you around!" she trilled one last time.

"Wait!" Benjamin called out. "Wait! Stop!"

_Shit_, thought Rose. _Shit, shit, shit. Did I put the card back in the wrong pocket? I'm certain I didn't. Did he notice something? Was there something Scorpius didn't know about the security system? Merlin! I was such a fucking idiot to trust that idiotic Malfoy with a task like this_.

By the time Benjamin had walked around the counter to reach Rose, she had berated herself and cursed Malfoy to hell a dozen times.

"Jane, I just wanted to ask you if you'd like to go out to dinner sometime…"

"Dinner?" she asked. Rose really wasn't expecting Benjamin the Lonely Librarian to even attempt a date proposal. Apparently her classy tart act had worked a bit too well. _Thud_. She felt her head pound.

Shit. An episode was happening. Shit, shit, shit. She had to get out of there before the black spots started.

She leaned against the doorframe as casually as she could manage and said, "I'd love dinner. I'm quite late, but I would love to do dinner at The Flying Cuckoo tonight at 7. Is that okay with you?"

He mentally went through his calendar in his head and said, "Yes, that would be perfect."

The minute he said those words, Rose rushed out of the library with a quick "Good-bye Benjamin!" and as the pounding in her head got louder and the black spots in her vision approached, she sagged in the crevice between a pillar and the wall.

_Fuck_, she thought, _thank you world for the fantastic bloody timing of this particular episode._ She laid there as her vision became splotchier and waited for the pain to begin in her chest.

Right when the pain began, she felt herself being swooped up into familiar arms. She didn't have to open her eyes to know that it was her un-knight in non-shining robes who was rescuing her once again.

She knew that if she tried to tell him to let her down, she'd wind up screaming all the pain that she was holding in, so she settled for punching him rapidly on the chest and wiggling her legs.

"Would you rather have me bring Benjamin the Non-So-Lonely-Anymore Librarian?" Scorpius threatened.

Rose felt the pain increasing, but she didn't stop protesting against Scorpius' hold. She might be about to feel the worst pain in her life, but she certainly didn't want this idiot to see her go through it.

"I'm serious Rose. If you keep on protesting, I'll drop you in a heap and yell out for Benjamin the Librarian. You know me and you I know for a fact you don't like me so I know you know that I'll call for his name."

Rose stopped squirming. To be honest she couldn't say whether it was because the pain had now reached her extremities and she physically couldn't more or because she was so repulsed by the idea of Benjamin the Librarian coming to her rescue.

"So should I even bother taking you to St. Mungo's?"

Rose gave the slightest shake of her head. It was pointless to go to St. Mungo's. The only reason she had been going was to give the research branch more data on her condition, but ever since Healer Aldridge had told Scorpius that Rose was a frequent visitor, she couldn't trust the institution. She had relied on the bond of doctor-patient confidentiality, but evidently that didn't bar healers from talking about how often she visited the hospital.

_Crack!_ They had arrived… somewhere.

Rose couldn't be bothered to look around, but between the black spots in her vision, she could see that the walls were a nice shade of dark blue that gave the space a fairly dark ambiance.

Scorpius lowered Rose onto something soft. As he went around grabbing a blanket and tucking her in, she couldn't help but think how ironic it was that this man who viewed as a coward and idiot was helping her in her moment of need. As she struggled through the horrid pain, she tried to find her happy place and found herself thinking of the moment not five minutes ago when she had smirked at Scorpius after slipping Benjamin the Librarian's card back into his pocket. _Ah, victory, _thought Rose, _t'is the happiest memory_ _anyone could have_.

She waited a while until the pain settled to the point where she could move without wanting to scream in agony and looked around. This was her third episode this week, but she couldn't tell if it was just because she was getting worse or if it was the stress of the heist that increased the regularity in episodes.

What she did know was that this time it was taking longer to recover and with her limited head movement she noticed the grey pillow, the black side table, the dark blue walls, the distinctly manliness of the room she was in. _Oh. That's fantastic_, she thought as she processed the details. _I'm in Malfoy's flat_.

* * *

AN: Oh fantastic, she's in Malfoy's flat! Let me know what you thought by reviewing. Merci!

Preview for the next chapter:

- Short section from the POV of Rose. (Can't do too many on these since she's a master manipulator.)

- A conversation about friendship

- A glimpse of Rose and Scorpius as first years

- Deciphering of complicated security charms


	3. Let's Be Friends?

Outside in the living room, Scorpius was sitting nervously on his couch. His fingers were tap, tap ,tapping the coffee table for he couldn't stop worrying. This was the second time that Rose had collapsed like that on him and he couldn't help but be worried at the fact that she had stopped protesting his help pretty quickly.

The first time he helped her had proved that she still disliked him with the same intensity. Why would she acquiesce to accepting his help this time? Was it truly the threat of Benjamin the Librarian? Could it be that maybe her feelings of dislike had lessened a bit? Or was it just some orchestrated plan to make him feel that she disliked him less?

No matter what the cause of this sudden acceptance of his help, he was worried for two reasons.

First, he had noticed that he hardly thought about the favor she was to owe him anymore. Initially he had been motivated to help Rose because he wanted her to feel indebted to him. It was the calculating Malfoy side of him that agreed to help her. However, now it was the regular Scorpius side of him that was happily working alongside her.

He had somehow become wrapped up in the thrill of things and begun to feel a sense of camaraderie with Rose while working on the first part of the heist. As he sat there worrying about Rose, he admitted to himself that at some point, he had started to help her because it was thrilling. Her ancient Tudor curse had given him something to study and work for and training as an Unspeakable took an unexpected turn in the backseat in his new life.

The second reason to worry was the person occupying his bedroom. Her admission that a visit to St. Mungo's was pointless lead him to bring her back to his flat, but Scorpius was at a loss for what to do. He didn't know what was plaguing her, and he didn't know how her attacks were related to the Tudor curse. He didn't even know the real her! She was so damned manipulative that he second-guessed every "real" moment he had with her. If he laid out all the facts he knew about Rose it came to this.

Her name was Rose Weasley.

She was 19 years old.

She worked as a "freelance curse breaker," whatever that meant.

She had some sort of ailment that was untreatable.

One of her "many" clients was Gringott's.

She was scary intelligent.

Six. Those six things were all that he really knew about her. Everything else could be an act.

Oh wait, make that seven.

She needed him.

Little did he know that as he was ruminating on the mystery that was Rose Weasley, she was lying in bed thinking of him.

(-)

_Well, I'm in his flat,_ thought Rose. _He's rescued me once again, which severely diminishes any scaring that I've done these past few weeks. _"Augh," she softly moaned. Her throat was still a bit sore from the attack. She clenched and unclenched her hands to get the blood pumping again and said softly, "How am I going to keep control over him if he doesn't fear me?"

She got the energy to sit up in his bed and looked around his room, gathering clues to decipher the soul of Scorpius Malfoy.

A relatively simple soul, she decided as she took a cursory glance around the room. She made a mental checklist in her head of the items of significance in his private bedroom and filed it away into the mental file on Scorpius Malfoy.

- Picture of his family on the bedside table: The appearance of a happy family life the Malfoys projected in the public image must be true. He, his father and his mother were heartily laughing in this candid picture.

- Schoolbooks from fifth to seventh year were on his bookshelf: He had a happy time in Hogwarts and cared enough to move his books with him to his independent flat.

- Largish size of the room: Obviously the Malfoys still had a sizable portion of their wealth even after war reparations and they didn't hesitate to spend on their darling son.

- Box of owl treats on the desk, lack of owl cage or any sort of pet care tools: He didn't personally have an owl, but cared enough to make sure any owls sent to him were properly rewarded.

- Photos of friends: He was still friendly with his Hogwarts mates. Probably maintained contact with them through owl post, hence the lack of recent photos and the owl treats.

- Books on his desk: The books that were on his desk were most likely the repeat reads and current reads. He was obviously very interested in art and had various exhibition books and biographies on famous wizarding artists. He also had a fair bit of books that delved deeper into the theory behind charms and transfiguration. Still a Ravenclaw at heart, she noted. He also had a small book on the history of the English royal family- he was obviously brushing up on his history.

The color scheme of the room, however, suggested that there was still some depth to him. The dark muted colors were not only masculine, but also moody. They suggested that he had something more interesting hiding beneath the normal exterior.

Before she got the chance to recover enough to rifle to through his drawers, (Hey, if she was given a chance to get insider details on Scorpius Malfoy, she wasn't going to let that chance get away) she heard a knock on the door.

She managed a weak, "Come in," through her sore vocal cords.

Scorpius was surprised to see her sitting comfortably in his bed. He sat on the edge and offered up a Pepper Up Potion.

"I actually can't drink that," Rose whispered, "Somehow, it makes things worse."

"Oh, well never mind then," Scorpius said as he shoved the potion behind him. "Well I have to admit I wasn't expecting you to just be sitting here when I came in."

"What did you expect?"

"That either you were waiting for me to come in so you could attack me for bringing you to my flat or that you were lying here immobile from pain."

"You thought I'd be waiting to attack you?" she asked skeptically.

"Well now I see the stupidity in that thought. See, I momentarily thought of you as a normal girl who would be all upset at the fact that a boy she didn't like brought her back to his flat while she was nearly unconscious and unable to protest."

"You couldn't have done anything else. I told you not to go to St. Mungo's and it's not as if you know the location of my flat. The only places we've met are The Eatery and the Room of Requirements and one would be impractical in my state and the other impossible to apparate to. Where else would have taken me but to your flat?"

"See the thing is that for a second I forgot that you were this logical creature who wasn't a normal girl."

Scorpius changed gears entirely and asked, "Weasley, do you have friends?"

"Friends?" she asked, completely confused at the change in topic.

"Yes, friends. People that you care about who you can talk about inane things with. People who you actually want to see on a daily basis and do things for, for nothing in return."

"Yes. I have friends," she said scathingly.

"I didn't mean to insult you or insinuate that you didn't have friends," said Scorpius. "It's just that I was sitting outside, pondering the mysteries of your many faces and sitting here talking to you now, I decided that I might as well be honest for a change and hopefully jar you into being honest yourself. I've been feeling a certain sense of camaraderie while planning this phase of the grand heist and I was wondering if you felt the same way."

Rose blinked. She had to admit, this was a great tactic on his part. His honesty had taken her by surprise and when she planned out how she would use Scorpius Malfoy in the beginnings of the plan, she certainly didn't expect for him to develop feelings of friendship towards her.

But Rose wasn't someone who stayed shocked for long. _If it's friendship he wants, it's friendship he'll get. If I can't control him through fear, perhaps friendship is second best._ But she couldn't be too eager in her ploy for friendship. She had to admit that he was a mite sharper than she gave him credit for initially and she knew that she would have to be sure to play the part carefully.

"Well…" she said, "Erm," she mumbled, playing the role of the flabbergasted girl. "Perhaps not friendship quite yet, but I'd be open to the idea." She couldn't act too eager yet for he would question the speed to which she came to the idea.

"Maybe we can even talk about what happened in Hogwarts-"

Rose put a hand up. "No, we can't, but maybe we can move past it." She offered up a smile. He would know it was fake, but would think it was to disguise the negative feelings their shared memory at Hogwarts brought up, not to disguise the fact that she really didn't want to be friends at all.

"Any how, I feel better enough to go back to my flat. Thank you for your hospitality," said Rose as she apparated away with a crack.

(-)

Rose's smirk as she stood behind Benjamin the Librarian.

Rose's smirk when he didn't answer a question correctly in fourth year.

Rose's smirk when the Sorting Hat had called out, "_Ravenclaw!_"

She had been a worse actress when she was in first year and hadn't been able to hide the range of emotions flitting across her face when sat underneath the Sorting Hat. He knew what she had been doing, since he had experienced it not moments before; she was arguing with the Hat.

The smirk she had given after the proclamation of Ravenclaw confirmed it for Scorpius. The Sorting Hat had wanted to put her in Slytherin, but she had persuaded it to put her in Ravenclaw. How was he so sure that this had been exactly what happened? Easy, he had just spent two minutes under the Sorting Hat arguing for the exact same thing and giving the same smirk in triumph.

Scorpius was absently flipped through the pages on security charms in his book as he thought back to his years at Hogwarts and to specifically a moment in his fifth year when Rose's feelings for him had switched from ambivalence to extreme dislike.

He shut the book. Ah, it was no matter now. Now as graduates, they could get past their issues at Hogwarts and with a friendship with Rose, he could make inroads in the Weasley/Potter clan and gain valuable connections…

(-)

He wanted to be friends. He wanted to be _friends_! Rose threw back her head in laughter and jumped on the couch in utter glee.

Now that she had properly thought it over, this was superb! As long as she didn't muck it up, she would have Scorpius Malfoy wrapped around her finger, doing far more than he should for her and actually thinking that he loved every minute of it!

Happy workers made for more productive workers and she'd make sure that Scorpius Malfoy would be a happy worker indeed.

(-)

Recreating and finding the security spells for the Department of Mystery's library pass card was proving to be a bit more difficult than they thought it would be.

Rose had easily figured out the basic security spells, but the mid-level and top tier charms were proving to be a bit more difficult.

The two had agreed that it would look far too fishy if too many spells were missing from the fake card and had agreed that at least 70% of the normal security charms had to be in working order for the fake to pass as a "damaged card." So far they had about 55% of the charms and were trying to figure out how the exact combination of the other security spells.

It had been a few weeks since the card copy incident and while Rose was feeling the pressure, she still made sure that she stayed relaxed during her meetings with Scorpius.

It was on another night in the Room of Requirements when Rose discovered something. "Hey, I actually think I've got something."

"What?"

"I think we've been approaching one of the charms the wrong way. I think instead of trying to charm the seal that's inked on the card, we need to charm the ink and then paint the seal." She looked up from the book she was reading and said, "Malfoy, you can draw decently. Do you think you can do this?"

"It doesn't hurt to try." He pulled out another blank card with the basic charms on it and conjured up a thin brush and some dark ink. Rose quickly hit the ink with a complex security spell.

"You don't need to practice first?" asked Rose.

"No, I'll be fine."

"Okay…"

"Hey, this just came to me," said Scorpius as he dipped his brush into the ink, "have you ever thought of needing the books and pacing outside this room and make the Room of Requirements procure it for you? If you just did that then couldn't you just bypass this entire elaborate operation?"

"I've tried that, you dimwit," she said. "The Room of Requirements can't call things from other places. It can only offer what it already has and what people have left here."

"Oh, okay. Sorry, I guess it was a dumb idea."

"Didn't your father even tell you about the Room of Requirements? Surely you know it played an instrumental part in the war."

"He doesn't exactly like talking about the war," he said. It was obvious from his tone that Scorpius also didn't like talking about the war. There was a moment of awkward silence, but Scorpius saved the moment by switching topics. "So I keep on forgetting to ask you this; did you actually wind up going on a date with Benjamin the Librarian?"

"Yes, I did. I actually just saw him for dinner before I came to meet you here."

"Seriously? Are you actually into him?" he stopped painting.

"Of course not," she said, "but we can use my connection to him later on. Being the steady girlfriend of Benjamin the Librarian means that I'll have an excuse to be hanging out in the library. Plus I can entice him with a make-out session or something if we ever need to draw him away from his precious counter."

He began painting again. It was as if the universe had decided to remind him, just in case he forgot, about how devious and manipulative Rose Weasley could be.

"So do you actually… you know… kiss him?" he asked.

She laughed. "Of course not! I just slip a little memory altering potion in his alcoholic drink then owl him the next day telling him how much I enjoyed the other night and throw in something that could be taken in a sexual manner."

And if he had forgotten the lengths she was willing to go to (memory altering potion, threats of Azkaban, so on and so forth) in order to get what she wanted, the universe decided to remind him right there.

"Interesting," he said. What was he supposed to say? Great job? I find it fascinating how you can manipulate people without a single drop of remorse? Or maybe he could say that sometimes he thought the whole openness to friendship on her part was also an act? Well maybe he should say what he was thinking. If he was truly being her friend, he should tell her when he thought her actions were deplorable.

"Indeed," she replied. "You know Malfoy, you really are amazing at this," she said gesturing at the almost finished seal.

"Thanks," he said. "So don't you ever feel remorse about manipulating people in this manner?"

She sat there staring at his movements as he painted, slightly taken aback by the blunt question. Ever since his declaration of friendship, they had steered clear of heavier topics in favor of light, friendly conversation.

"Well," she said, "sometimes I do, but then the pain will come and it'll completely erase any remorse I had. Someday when it's all over I'll explain why I acted the way I did towards certain people, and why I had to manipulate them, but I won't ask for forgiveness. If anyone could feel what I feel, I'm certain that they wouldn't hesitate to act the same way I do." Rose had surprised herself by telling the truth. She had thought about making a joke and lighting up the mood or perhaps a tearful fake confession of how awful she felt inside, but instead of lies, the truth had come bubbling out of her.

Scorpius continued painting the seal. He had no clue what to say to a statement like that and he felt like the most he could offer Rose was an apology and silence.

"Sorry for the question."

"It's fine," she answered.

The second awkward moment of the night. He decided to switch topics again and said, "You know, friends don't usually call each other by their last names…"

"Are you suggesting we make the transition from last to first?"

"I am…, Rose." He tried not to grimace.

"That's interesting… Scorpius." Scorpius couldn't stop from frowning when he heard his name coming out of Rose's mouth.

"Never mind it was a stupid idea. It just feels so damn awkward saying each other's first names when we've gone years calling each other by our lasts."

"I have to agree with you on that one. I guess we'll just have to be happy using each other's last names."

"I guess we'll have to…" he trailed off as he put the finishing touches on the seal. "There!" he said, holding up the card, "Doesn't this look real? I think the charmed security seal bumps us up to covering 78% of the spells. It's time to put our second plan into action."

Rose took the card and admired it by the fireplace. "Brilliant," she said. "I'll need a few days to brew a potion up to its most unstable point. Shall we meet back here in three days to iron out the details?"

"That sounds marvelous."

(-)

Three days later, Scorpius received a tawny, brown speckled owl from Rose. _Seriously, _he thought, _how paranoid is she? _He knew from his days at Hogwarts that she had a dark brown owl of her own, but he hadn't seen it once. Instead he'd seen an endless parade of owls in all different shapes and sizes probably gotten from the owlry in Diagon Alley.

…

Meeting tonight at 9.

W

…

W for Weasley. Even if she got married, Merlin help the man who'd get stuck with her, he'd probably still be calling her Weasley.

(-)

Today was the day of execution and they had left nothing up to chance.

Rose was leaning against a pillar in another one of her "classy slag" outfits; this time, with a little more slag. Benjamin walked into her field of vision and she pounced like a lioness honing in on her wee little prey.

"Benjamin!" she squealed for effect. "Surprise!"

"Jane!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to surprise you! I couldn't stop thinking about what we did that other night…" she winked lasciviously.

"Oh yes... that was lovely...," Benjamin said and the two of them walked to the library. "I have to get some work done, so I hope you don't mind just watching me work."

"Oh, Benjamin!" she giggled. "Of course I don't mind. I absolutely adore watching you work." She giggled once more, just in case.

She flounced into the library, and Scorpius tried not to laugh as he hid behind a book. Although he was sure no one else would notice, he sent a silent charm towards Rose and Benjamin so that anyone who looked at them would see a slight blurriness around them.

As the caster of the charm, he could clearly see Rose loop an arm around Benjamin, his look of pure delight and Rose's slender fingers make the easy switch from Benjamin's old card to their fake. Part one, done without a hitch.

Scorpius observed as Benjamin went behind the counter and Rose leaned over, every bit the attentive girlfriend.

He cast a charm so he could hear better and trained his ears towards Rose and Benjamin.

"Mmm," she said as she rubbed her lips together. "I think my lips are chapped. I think I have some balm in my purse somewhere," she said as she began pulling stuff out of her bag. She pulled out a compact, a bag of coins, a clear bottle that she positioned ever so casually close to the candle on the counter and pulled out a few more miscellaneous girly items. "Ah, here it is!" she tittered. She rubbed the balm on her lips, completely capturing Benjamin's attention so he didn't notice the liquid inside of the bottle bubbling intensely.

Scorpius quickly undid the charm on his ears in anticipation of the blast and ducked down a little in his chair.

_BOOM! _

The bottle cracked and bits of glass and whatever potion Rose had brewed were flung everywhere. The two other students in the room were yelling and trying to figure out what the hell had happened and Benjamin, after the initial shock, was urging everyone out of the library.

Rose, ever the actress, was sobbing and was completely hunched over on the floor. The image of Rose on the floor was a familiar one for Scorpius and for a split-second he forgot about the plan and was about to walk over to her to scoop her into his arms.

Luckily, Benjamin quickly went over to Rose to console her and Scorpius left the building. Once outside, Scorpius did some damage control and talked about some leaky pipe that he had heard the Ministry officials talking about. The two students bought the explanation and wandered off

Scorpius went to level 11, general wizarding security and spotted Lazy Tom, the security officer on duty at the card station on his daily sandwich break. Scorpius, to Rose's urging, had observed the habits of the security as best he could without being too conspicuous and the two of them had even visited a bar popular with the security staff to listen to the gossip. The moniker "Lazy Tom" had clued them into the fact that if there were anyone that was going to be fooled by fake ID, it would be him.

Scorpius walked by the bench where Lazy Tom had sat down to enjoy his sandwich and placed a small metallic circle underneath his collar. Rose hadn't allowed him to ask very many questions about the metal circle, but according to her it was a Muggle listening device that the majority of the wizarding community didn't know about quite yet. She was betting on the fact that the Ministry hadn't retrofitted the security offices to deal with Muggle devices and was hoping that they'd be able to listen in on the conversation.

Scorpius would have been doubtful that the tiny metal thing could do what she claimed it could, but the fact that Rose testified for it was enough for him.

He made his way outside of the Ministry and into Diagon Alley where he waited by the Fortescue's Ice-Cream shop for Rose to arrive. He jiggled his legs; he clenched and unclenched his hands. He didn't know why he was so worried when this entire thing was Rose's operation. Maybe it was their newfound friendship that had him so worried for Rose? Yes that had to be it.

Ten nerve-wracking minutes later, Rose slammed into the seat next to Scorpius, wearing a cardigan that belonged on a grandmother, no a grandfather, which effectively covered up her tarty outfit.

"Success," she said with a cheeky grin and pulled out a small metal box with earphones attached. She jabbed one into Scorpius' ear, to his surprise, and she stuck one in hers. She quickly cast her standard eavesdropping charms and shoved her wand back in her pocket.

He was about to protest to the dangly thing in his ear, but she shushed him and he noticed the sounds piping through.

The listened quietly, Rose shoving the rose hip & chamomile flavored ice cream into her mouth.

When the security guard questioned Benjamin the Librarian on how the card had become that way, Benjamin mumbled something about how he had a minor potions accident in the library. Lazy Tom being… well, lazy, didn't probe any further and immediately reapplied all the security charms to the fake card.

Scorpius looked at Rose with a grand smile on his face; even though he knew that the plan was as perfect as they could possible have gotten it to be, it was still satisfying to see that everything had gone spectacularly.

"You are positively brilliant, Weasley," he said.

"Why thank you. You're not so dumb yourself," she said as she grinned back. For the first time, things were actually going _right_ and she felt so free. She was sure that the D of M's library was where she'd find the materials she needed and perhaps in no time at all, she'd be fine. She laid one hand over her chest and rubbed it a bit.

"Weasley, are you all right?"

"Of course I'm fine. We just pulled off the hardest part of the task and now we have unlimited access to the library!"

"Well it's just that when I saw you on the floor after the explosion, I couldn't help but think that you were having another episode or something."

She flashed a grin and said, "I must be an even better actress than I thought."

Scorpius absorbed her grin. It felt almost real, but there was the slightest strain on her eyes that gave her away.

"Don't be stupid. What the hell are we doing here? You should be at home, resting."

"I'm telling you, I'm fine."

"You obviously aren't. When the potion went off, it triggered an episode, didn't it?"

Rose could either argue the point with him for ten minutes, or just tell the truth and get it over with. Telling him that she did have an episode might trigger a protective side of Malfoy that she really didn't want to deal with, but she figured that convincing him that she was feeling better would be easier than persuading him that she didn't have an episode at all.

"Fine, I did have one. It was minor and I'm almost grateful to it." She wasn't. "It really helped my acting abilities." It hadn't. She had to fight to make sure screams wouldn't come out with the sobs. "I'm really feeling better now." That was actually the truth. She pointed to the ice cream. "This really helped with the fatigue and sore throat."

Scorpius looked at her warily, "Are you sure you'll be fine? There's nothing stopping you from going back to your flat. The mission in over with."

"It is but…" she trailed off. For some reason the thought of leaving and going back to her flat wasn't appealing in the slightest. Maybe it was the sun that was shining on their lovely day, maybe it was the delicious ice cream sitting in front of her, maybe she wanted to bask in the success of their most recent mission and maybe, just maybe it was the man who was sitting next to her, who's company she was beginning to enjoy.

She looked at his worried face and laughed, this time it was a true laugh. "Seriously Malfoy. Don't worry about me. I'm really fine! I think it might be something in this ice cream but I've never felt so well so quickly after an attack. I'll have to research rose hip and chamomile when I get a chance."

"If you say so..."

"I do say so."

"Then if you're feeling so well, you can tell me how the little explanation for the potions accident went. I was rudely swept out of the library and couldn't observe your acting skills."

She laughed. "That was actually a fair bit of acting. He knelt down to comfort me and I blubbered out that I thought it might have been my skin potion that caused the accident. I said some bullshit about how the potion was sensitive to heat and how I must have _accidentally_ put it next to the candle."

"He ate it all up?"

"Of course he ate it all up. I then proceeded to cry some more and confessed that I was scared of getting in trouble since I didn't really belong on the floor let alone the D of M and he, getting the chance to be my shining knight in armor leapt at the chance to take the blame upon himself."

Scorpius shook his head in amazement. "So if someone files a Ministry investigation into the little accident, he'll take all the blame. I have to say it. You're a little scary sometimes."

"Thanks," she said with a grin filled with mischievousness.

"I didn't really mean it as a compliment."

"Don't worry, I took it as one."

* * *

AN: As always, thanks for reading. The card switch featured in this scene was just an extension of the card switch they had performed initially, hence the similarity of the methods used. I wanted this chapter to be more about the two of them spending time with each other, which we'll get a lot of next chapter.

Upcoming:

- You find out how Rose got cursed

- They pour over texts... and Scorpius gets distracted because he just wants to talk to Rose.

- Polyjuice Potion hijinks in their next mini mission


	4. Stupidity is a Locket

AN: I've resigned myself to a very small readership for this story, but it's fine with me. I really like this story.

* * *

(-)

Weasley,

Found another one. Can you do 8:00?

SM

M,

Yes.

Rose's owl came with a medium sized box that had a dozen hearts on it and a silver bow. Scorpius smiled at the outrageously romantic box and got ready for his dinner with Rose.

(-)

It had been two weeks since he got the card and he had been going in and out of the restricted section pouring over the shelves for anything to do with the Tudors, Catherine of Aragon, Elizabeth I, Robin Dudley, ancient magic, blood curses, hate curses etc.

Summoning charms were banned in the restricted section and the only way they had even located all the books was a minor con job in itself involving another appearance of "classy slag" Rose, her nimble fingers and a couple of charms.

Scorpius once again met Rose at the Eatery where they had established a reputation of a couple with the big, romantic box under his arm. The hostess took one look at him, smiled and led him to their regular table chattering about what an endearing couple the two of them made. He made all the proper responses and genuinely smiled when he got to his table.

"The hostess thinks I'm just the best fiancé she's ever seen since I get you presents all the time," he said as he sat down across from Rose.

She mockingly simpered and said, "So what have you got for me today?"

He gave the box to her and she opened it. She played the part of the thrilled girl as she drew out a scarf, but was secretly inspecting the text hidden beneath layers of fabric.

"It's an old text on Catherine of Aragon and includes a bit of her bio from her days in England."

She sighed.

"Sorry, but this was all I could find. I'm betting that we'll be able to find out more about her childhood and education at our sister library in Spain. For now I think we'll just have to comb the library we do have for hints to Catherine's blood magic."

She pulled out a slim box of her own covered in hearts and tossed it to Scorpius.

"What's this?" he asked, completely puzzled.

"Look."

He unwrapped it to find a grey scarf. He would have stopped there, but he knew there was no way in hell that Rose Weasley would give him a scarf as a present, so he peeled back the scarf to reveal documents from the Department of Mystery. Specifically, documents for book transfers.

"Where'd you get these?"

She shot him a wolfish grin. "I got bored distracting our dear friend Benny the Librarian and decided to pull a mini job of my own. I wasn't sure if we'd need these or not, but I got them just in case."

He should have known that she would get up to something while spending time at the counter. He was a little surprised by the fact that she hadn't told him a thing about what she was planning to do, but given her independent nature, he had to admit it wasn't out of the norm.

"You never cease to surprise me," he said simply.

"Let's hope I never do."

(-)

Scorpius went home and immediately opened up his notebook. He added an entry about the little job she had pulled independently and studied his notes to see if he could make out anything else about the mystery that was Rose Weasley.

This was the second time this week that they had gone to the Eatery to exchange documents.

She had decided a while back that meeting at the Room of Requirements to exchange documents was too much work for such a simple task and had come up with the whole "fiancé giving his girl a present" plan so that they could exchange information without raising suspicion.

She still refused to tell him where she lived. Since she had been to his flat before, he would have been open to the idea of using his place to hand over sensitive papers, but the idea had never been brought up by Rose. With anyone else, he'd figure that she'd forgotten that his flat was an option, but with Rose Weasley, he knew that she had already considered and rejected his flat for whatever reason.

Her caustic, bitter, entirely hilarious jokes about the people who frequented the Eatery and their joke personas, her honest laughter to his jokes about Benjamin the Librarian, the way his jaw hurt from smiling so much around her… They no longer needed to act in order to keep up appearances behind their eavesdropping charms. The only acting they did, was elevate their friendliness to simpering romance whenever the waitress swung around. It was this easy, biting dialogue that developed between them that made Scorpius believe that she could truly let bygones be bygones and that the two of them would remain friends even she had gotten all that she needed.

Perhaps… even escalate their friendliness to romance? He had no desire to be the ridiculous couple they pretended to be, but he did want the chance to kiss those lips of hers. He wanted to see if she was really as cold-blooded as she seemed on the outside, or if the sarcastic, but human person she occasionally let him glimpse was the real Rose Weasley.

He wasn't certain though. For now, friendship was more than enough. He filed away his thoughts on her lips, her eyes, her scathing wit and endearing derision for most of the planet away in a different part of his mind to ruminate upon another day.

Right now, he was busy trying to find out more about the Tudor curse and how exactly Rose Weasley had managed to bring the curse upon herself. Although she'd never told him outright, it was painfully (ha) obvious that somehow she was succumbing to the Tudor curse and was trying so desperately to figure out the workings of it to get it off of her.

Scorpius had taken to researching her genealogy on both her mother and father's side to see if he could trace it to the royal family, but so far he had had little luck with the Granger side. The Grangers just suddenly stopped at a certain point in history and his eyes were going cross-eyed from pouring over old records.

He closed the book and squeezed his eyes shut and tossed back the rest of his beer.

Maybe he'd just ask her, he thought. His bluntness usually resulted in her telling the truth and if she didn't answer, he could always revert back to sneakily gathering clues on her family history.

(-)

She burst out laughing.

"Are you seriously asking me that question?"

"Yes. Are you or are you not related to the Tudors?"

"No of course I'm not!"

They had chosen tonight to brainstorm ideas of how to better research and were spread out with rolls and rolls of parchment around them in the Room of Requirements.

"Then why do you have the Tudor curse on you?"

Her eyes widened a little, but she quickly composed her face.

"Did you seriously think I wouldn't figure it out? You're researching a curse, you have weird medical symptoms; of course you're researching your own curse."

"I was hoping that you would be purposely ignorant."

"Well I'm not. You have to tell me how you have the curse."

"Who says I have to?"

"We're _friends_ aren't we?"

She cringed.

"I guess."

"Friends tell each other things."

"I was under the impression that friends don't put friends under pressure to reveal things they aren't comfortable revealing."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Weasley, we've been working together for months now. Don't you think you can trust me with this?"

"It's really not that much of a secret or a story. I was working, I came upon this curse, I somehow brought it upon myself. Now, I'm paying the consequences for my curiosity and trying to break the curse using your help. Happy?"

"Not at all. I'd like some more information please."

"Too bad, you aren't getting any."

"It'd be nice if you'd offer me the semblance of trust."

"I do trust you, Malfoy."

"Evidently not."

"Haven't you ever heard the saying that you're supposed to leave a girl a few secrets?" She cracked a smile and he was momentarily taken aback, but only momentarily.

"Never."

"Hmm, must be a Muggle saying…"

"Weasley, you're not getting out of this one. If you really want me to help you, you're going to have to tell me everything. You're going to have to trust someone sooner or later and it might as well be me."

"Why should it be you?"

"Well, I'm here already, aren't I? It'd be awfully convenient for you to just lay down comfortably and confess all to Scorpius Malfoy."

"It would be convenient and comfortable, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, it would."

She smiled again, but this one was filled with a bratty gleam. "Too bad I don't do "convenient and comfortable," Malfoy. Now kindly shut it and get back to work."

(-)

A few days later

(-)

"So have you even tried researching your bloodline?"

"Yes."

"And what came of it?"

"I lose the Granger line somewhere in the 1920s and the Weasleys seem to somehow pop into existence in the early 1800s."

"All the portraits and writings seem to emphasize the "Tudor coloring." The bright red hair and pale face were iconic in the Tudor household…. Don't you find it interesting that the Weasleys are known for the exact same thing?"

"Scorpius Malfoy. Are you truly sitting here and telling me that you are hypothesizing a connection between the Weasleys and the Tudors? A pureblooded wizard line connected to a royal Muggle line?"

"Yes, Weasley. I am."

"If there as a connection like that, don't you think the entire wizarding world would know about it? Stop saying absurd things and get back to work."

Ten minutes passed by and the only sound heard was the flipping of parchment and the scratching of self-inking quills.

"How are you so certain that you aren't?"

"What?"

"How are you so certain you aren't this distantly removed relative of the Tudors?"

"This again?"

"Yes. This again. You said so yourself, Weasley. You said you couldn't trace the bloodlines of the Grangers and the Weasleys back before the early 1800s."

"So you automatically jump to the idea that I am related to the Tudors?"

"Well you know, there's that little tiny factor… what was it again? Oh yeah, the curse."

She rolled her eyes.

"You want to know why I'm so sure that I'm not related to the Tudors?"

He nodded eagerly.

"I didn't get this curse because I'm a Tudor; I got it because I'm a overly curious, idiot who let her imagination get in the way of her brain."

"You're telling me Rose Weasley, cold logician and cursebreaker actually let her emotions get the best of her?"

She rolled her eyes again. "I let my imagination get the better of me. Don't worry, I'm still an emotionless doll."

"So what stupid thing did you do?"

"There was a locket…"

"Seriously, a locket? Didn't your parents tell you not to mess with lockets?"

"Yes, I know better than anyone the story about my parents and the evil horcrux locket."

"Yet you still messed with it."

"I know. I figured that my parents already had dealings with one extremely evil locket- what were the odds that I'd also deal with an evil locket?"

Scorpius dropped his head in his hands and said, "Obviously very high."

"Somewhere, the gods are laughing."

"So is this why you don't want your parents and the press to find out about it? I can already imagine the headlines… _Idiot Daughter of War Heroes Messes with an Evil Locket!_"

"That and other issues."

"What are the other issues?"

"Leave a girl some secrets, Malfoy."

"That's a Muggle phrase."

"Everyone in my family knows it. Now you know it. It's well on its way to becoming a wizarding phrase as well."

"So you opened this locket and the curse latched on you?"

"Something like that."

"Why did you open it?"

"Honestly?"

"Of course."

"The locket… it seemed to call to me. I should have known that it was cursed when I felt the pull and looking back it all seems so damned obvious to me. I've felt the pull of curses before and I've always been able to resist and recognize the curse's pull. No matter. This one managed to trap me into its spell and I felt drawn to it. Before I knew it, I opened it and the curse over took me. Initial research revealed to me that the locket had belonged to Robert Dudley of the court of Queen Elizabeth. It didn't take me much to research the beginnings of the curse of Catherine of Aragon and it lead me to the D of M and you."

"You're right."

"Right about what?"

"That was extremely idiotic of you."

"Thanks Malfoy. I'll treasure that little compliment till my dying day."

"As you very well should."

"Now get back to work."

(-)

A few days later

(-)

"So are you dating anyone these days?"

"Yes, you know I'm dating Benjamin the Librarian."

"Oh yeah. Him. No, I meant a real relationship."

"Are you kidding me?" She pointed at her chest and mock spasmed.

"Oh… right. Er, stupid question on my part."

"I'll say."

"You know, ordinarily friends are supposed to be curious about each other's lives."

"Yes, I figured that's why you asked me about the dating thing."

"You were supposed to ask me about my dating life after I asked you about yours."

"Oh. I'm sorry." She sat up and drilled her eyes through his skull. "So Malfoy, are you seeing anybody?"

"No."

"Okay. Can we get back to work and stop asking inane questions?"

"Of course."

(-)

Later on that evening

(-)

She dressed to blend in.

He noted that bit down in his notebook and scratched in an explanation.

She's forever dressing in black, grey or white. If she ever dares to jump off that non-color color scheme, she'll wear brown or navy blue. What do all these colors have in common? They don't stand out.

(-)

Three weeks later

(-)

"Use the restroom first."

"Why? I don't have to go."

"Can you just please use the restroom first?"

"I seriously don't have to go and I swear that if I have to go while in your body, I will just hold it in or piss myself."

"Good. I'm quite reassured, now please go use the restroom."

She rolled her eyes and went to use the restroom in the corner of the room.

He was nervous. He was worried that once she was in his body, she'd discover that he's not actually all that muscular and that he was actually quite scrawny. But his worst fear was her having to use the restroom in his body… he cringed at the embarrassing thought. It wasn't as if he wasn't confident about his body, it was just embarrassing to have her be in it.

"Okay give me the potion." Rose gripped the bottle and quickly plucked a strand of Scorpius' hair. She added it to the potions, grimaced a little and chugged the whole thing.

"One last time, are you sure that you aren't going to… you know have an episode?"

"To be honest, not really, but we'll have to take that chance."

"Would you like me to accompany you?"

"And how would we do that? We have only one pass. Don't be silly."

He knew he was being silly by worrying for a woman who could obviously take care of herself, but he couldn't help but. He watched as she apparated out of his flat and sat back for a long night of worrying.

Rose had decided that she needed to check out the library for herself. He had been bringing roll after roll of parchment filled with the copied innards of forbidden or rare books, but she insisted that there had to be an area of the library that he hadn't explored yet. Although he insisted that he had been sweeping the library from top to bottom and that they texts they had should be more than enough, Rose wasn't satisfied and proposed the Polyjuice potion to morph into Scorpius and roam the library afterhours.

If caught, she would still be in a lot of trouble, but it was better to be caught as Scorpius who actually belonged on the floor than Rose Weasley, a random person.

It had been seven months since they had initially met at the lobby of the D of M and those months had been the wildest moments of Scorpius' young life. He argued with himself constantly at home over whether he could trust Rose or not, and the consequences of those arguments were strewn all over the little notebook where he documented all he knew about the curse, Rose and Tudor family history. The notebook had bits and pieces scratched out and a hundred different side notes. He had changed his mind over whether he could fully trust her or not more than he could count, but truthfully it didn't matter.

Why?

Simple. He was developing quite a crush on Rose Weasley.

Somewhere between plotting schemes and pouring over ancient texts, he had become enchanted by Rose Weasley's particular brand of magic. He was observant enough to notice that she showed more and more of her true self the longer they continued their association. Underneath the cold, bitingly sarcastic, frighteningly manipulative Rose Weasley laid a slightly warmer, bitingly sarcastic, still quite frightening manipulative woman and he adored it all.

Yes, he still lived in fear that she was ultimately only using him and that her entire demeanor towards him was a sham and yes, the fact revealed earlier in the month that she had included a clause that basically stipulated that he was hers did frighten him. However, he was still falling fast for her.

Her cold demeanor paired with her natural sarcasm meant no one was safe from their observations, which in turn meant that any conversation held with her inevitably would make Scorpius choke on his own spit from laughing so hard. It was extremely difficult trying to get her to laugh in turn, but any time he did, he was rewarded with the laugh that sounded like the most melodic thing on earth.

Perhaps the only thing more melodic to Scorpius' ears was her voice when she'd offhandedly hum a melody while they were researching. Initially, she had insisted on doing the research on her own, but slowly she began entrusting him to do the research alongside her. Now, they met nearly every night in the Room of Requirements and had completely stopped their playacting at the Eatery. He hated the lost chance of acting like a real couple, but loved the opportunity to sidle up next to Rose to go over documents and reveled in the natural way their hands would meet when going for the same quill.

Anyways, back to the humming. He had researched and soon discovered that she was partial to the tunes by Chopin, particularly his series of Nocturnes and of those, she favored Nocturne in B flat minor. The elegant piano piece described Rose perfectly and when he waged war against his mind at night, he played a record of Chopin's and soon lost himself in thoughts of Rose Weasley.

He would find himself sketching her eye, her lips, the elegant curve of her eyebrow during classes and as much as he hated to prove her right, he could tell that if he hadn't had this arrangement with Rose, he wouldn't have made it into the program.

He could feel that crush deepening when she'd occasionally reveal deeper sides to her. When she allowed herself to talk about how her pain was so great that she didn't regret a single manipulative thing she had done, he hadn't been horrified. Instead, he had been astounded by her confidence in herself. He admired her gut and focus and the more they chatted, the more he found he could relate to her. Parents with high expectations, having famous last names that constantly made them the topic of the school gossip, their general disdain for stupid people were just some of the things that they had in common.

He looked at the clock. It had been at least an hour since she had left.

He had an idea. He rummaged up two glasses and a bottle of wine, cleared a space on his table and managed to find some cheeses that weren't rotting. He summoned up boxes of crackers and was in the middle of arranging them on a plate when Rose popped back in with a triumphant grin on her face.

He took one look at her bright face and swallowed. Yes indeed, he had a minor crush on Rose Weasley.

"I take it that it went well?''

"Splendidly. I couldn't have asked for it to go better."

"That's good to hear. What did-"

"Well, I guess I could have asked for it to have gone better. Ideally I would have made it past the barrier, but just knowing the barrier exist strengthens my hypothesis that the documents we are looking for are in this library."

"What barrier are you-"

"There's a hidden room in the library. We were fools- no, I was a fool not to realize it. Of course there'd be more than one level of security in the D of M's library! Fool! Fool! I can't possibly hate myself more at this moment."

"Well, I don't think there's a need to-"

"It's no matter now, of course. What I need- well, we need- to figure out now is how to get access to that hidden room! Maybe I can steal my uncle's cloak for a day and sit invisible in the library to see if anyone enters or exits. That would take away from a full day of research, but if anyone were to enter or exit the room it would more than make up for the lost day."

"Sorry, what hidden room-"

"Oh I already told you about the hidden room. The room behind the barrier! Anyways, what's this? Are you expecting company? Why's there wine on the table with two glass tumblers? And is that brie?"

Scorpius remained silent. The current rambling was reminding him of a day that now seemed so far away when he was first getting to know Rose Weasley. She had rambled on in this very manner when asking for his help. He filed away the little fact that she had the tendency to ramble when nervous away in his little mind file on Rose to add to the notebook later.

"Malfoy, why's there wine on the table?"

"You're letting me talk now?"

She stood there silently, daring him to call her out on her rambling one more time.

"There's wine on the table because I thought you'd like to celebrate after your success."

She raised an eyebrow. "And how did you know that I'd succeed?"

"You're Rose Weasley. How could you not succeed?"

"Ha. That's true. It's nice to see the vote of confidence after you made such a fuss about me going on my own earlier this evening."

"What can I say? I'm a regular mother hen._ Cluck cluck cluck_." Scorpius added flapping gestures to complete the image of a mother hen as he poured the wine.

"To a job well done!" Rose said as she raised a glass.

"To a job well done!" Scorpius replied as he clinked his to hers.

Instead of delicately sipping the contents, they chugged the drink down in one gulp and the night began.

* * *

AN: Oh boy did the night begin.

Preview

- Scorpius drinks... a lot.

- Hazy memories and drunken scribbles that might imply that Scorpius has confessed his crush

- Benjamin the Librarian makes a triumphant return


	5. DrunkSober

Drunk/Sober

"Are you really my friend?"

"Yes, Malfoy. I'm your friend."

"Because sometimes I feel like I'm misreading the signs and that you might just be stringing me along."

"As much as I loathe to admit it, you've turned out to be quite a respectable guy."

"So about that incident in 5th year…"

"Why don't we talk about that another time? When we haven't been drinking."

(-)

"Did you know what people called you?"

"Yes. Did you know what people called you?"

"Yes. Didn't it bother you?"

"No. And by seventh year no one was calling me "Ice Queen" anymore. In fact, I'm glad that they called me that. It motivated me to develop a persona for the public and honed my acting skills."

"Oh. So your detractors actually fueled you to better yourself. Maybe I should have had a shittier nickname in school."

"Did our dear "Prince Charming" not enjoy his nickname?"

"I only found out in sixth year that the name came from a Muggle fairytale."

"Did it make you like it less?"

"Yes."

"Because it was Muggle?"

"No, because I thought they were calling me Prince Charming due to my charming personality, not because of my looks."

"Idiot, they were calling you Prince Charming due to the combination of your charming personality and your good looks."

"So you think I'm a charming good looking guy?"

"No, but I can see that most of the female population does."

"Have I ever told you that you're fantastic at building up self-confidence?"

"No."

"Good."

(-)

"I do love drawing, but it's always just been a hobby. My parents have always supported it and they even supplied me with a private tutor when I was younger, but as supportive as they were, they always emphasized that they supported it as a hobby."

"Do you ever think about just pursuing art seriously?"

"I don't let myself."

(-)

"'Why do I like you?' What kind of question is that?"

"Just answer it."

"I like you because you're smart and competent."

"That's it?"

"What else do you want me to say?"

"You're not supposed to say what I want you to say. Well, I guess you are, but not intentionally! Well, maybe a little. You're supposed to start gushing about all the reasons you like me. Feel free to list my charming personality and roguish good looks amongst the many reasons, by the way."

"Okay. I like you because you're smart and competent. Oh, I guess you're also good at keeping a secret, but then again you're legally bound to do so."

"You didn't mention my charm and looks."

"You said feel free to list them. I chose not to. We've run out of cheese."

(-)

"I am fascinated by the shape of your eyes. Can't get enough of them. Would you mind if you posed for a second so I could get the proper contour of your eyelid? I'll just run and grab my sketchbook really fast."

(-)

"Malfoy, these sketches are… fascinating. Did you charm them?"

"A few of the colored ones are charmed."

"This abstract one is a concept that I've never seen before! How did you do this?"

"Oh you know. I researched a few artistic charms here and there and cobbled together a few charms of my own making."

"Malfoy, inventing charms takes hard work. Trust me, I would know."

"They come pretty easily to me, believe it or not."

"Looking at these, I think I choose to believe."

(-)

"Weasley, you are remarkable at holding your liquor. How are you so remarkable in so many remarkable things?"

"Malfoy, you're not so bad yourself although I do think the alcohol might be getting to you at this point."

"Perhaps I am a little tipsy."

"We've gone through three bottles of wine, I'd be surprised if you weren't at least a little bit tipsy."

"Well what about you?"

"I have a French aunt. I've been drinking wine since I was six."

"Well so have I but that hasn't stopped my brain to slowly turning into mush right now."

(-)

"Weasley, can't you tell me something real about yourself?"

"I tell you plenty of things about myself."

"You know what I'm talking about."

"My name is Rose Weasley. I'm a freelance curse breaker. I-"

"No, not that stuff. Tell me something real."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Tell me about the tune you hum to yourself."

"The piano piece? It's by a famous composer-"

"No, no, no. Tell me why you hum it. Tell me why you like it."

"I suppose it resonates with me. It's sweetly sad. I can't really explain it, but it's one of the only tunes in the world that can move me to tears if played correctly. The opening notes alone are enough to sink me into an entirely different world. The notes are a magic of their own…"

(-)

"I can feel the world moving."

"That's great Malfoy."

"Weasley. Lay down on the floor so you can feel the world moving."

"I can feel it moving from the couch."

"Seriously, come down to the ground to feel it move. I've never felt so… at one with the world. Hum the tune."

(-)

"I want to tell you that out of my great respect for you coupled with a little fear, I would help you uncover the secret behind the curse even if the contract were to be ripped up into bits."

"Thank you Malfoy, that means a lot to me."

"Seriously. I like you so much that I would do anything to help you lift the curse."

"Thank you Malfoy."

"Really. I really like you. It's not fair that you have a curse on you."

"Thanks Malfoy, but I did open up the stupid locket."

"Yes, you are stupid. But you're not stupid. You're smart and you're scary and you make me laugh. You have energy that just crackles off of you and you're more ambitious than anyone I've ever known. You have just the right dash of craziness."

"Thanks Malfoy."

(-)

"Malfoy? Malfoy? Are you sleeping?"

"_ZZzzz_"

(-)

The next morning

(-)

_Ugh,_ Scorpius thought,_ we got wasted last night_.

He got up and saw the glass of water next to a small vial of Hangover potion on the table next to his bed.

M,

Thought you might need this.

RW

He quickly drank both potion and glass of water and ambled out to his living room. It was spotless. The glasses had been washed and returned to the shelf above his sink. His papers were organized on the table and the bottles of wine were neatly stacked in the bin. She had even cleaned up the cracker and cheese remnants and had thrown out the moldy cheeses and expired food products.

_Correction_, he thought, _I got trashed last night. Weasley, evidently, stayed sober enough to clean up after us_.

He went to his notebook on Rose to enter in the data on her drinking habits and paused when he saw entries he had no recollection of ever making.

Apparently, he had the presence of mind to jot down a few notes after getting sloshed. Perhaps he had also had the presence of mind to help her clean up?

The Rose Notebook

She put me to bed, but I wasn't sleeping. I was feeling the world move.

I told her I liked her and she said thanks.

_WHAT_. He panicked. If he, in his drunkenness, had told Rose Weasley that he had an enormous crush on her, he'd collapse out of mortification right here right now.

The fact that they were dealing with an ancient curse that was debilitating Rose Weasley paled in comparison to his current crisis. Did he or did he not confess his feelings to Rose in a drunken state of mind last night? He had to figure out, but he had no way of doing so unless he wanted to face her.

He reread the note by his bedside table.

M,

Thought you might need this.

RW

The Hangover potion. Had she gone back to her flat then popped back to his to put it next to his bedside table? If so, then if he did confess his feelings last night, was this potion a way of showing that she felt the same way?

Maybe the potion was something she found in his flat while cleaning it out?

She had cleaned out the apartment. Did that mean that she found it so disgusting she couldn't possibly leave without tidying it up a bit or was it her way of showing that she cared for him?

Maybe he hadn't confessed at all and his drunken mind only thought he had confessed and maybe everything was absolutely normal?

M,

Thought you might need this.

RW

Damn her and her efficiently short notes. There was no wiggle room, no way of interpreting her words. They meant only what they said and the initials "M" and "RW" meant nothing but their names.

M,

Thought you might need this.

RW

The fact that she thought he might need this might show that she took the time to think about him? Maybe she was trying to tell him that she thought about him too and that she felt the same way he did? That is, if he did actually confess his feelings last night. He was hoping that he didn't.

M,

Thought you might need this.

RW

Perhaps… oh bollocks.

Scorpius crumpled up the note in frustration and went back to sleep.

(-)(-)(-)

Two days later

(-)(-)(-)

There she was, laughing it up with Benjamin in the café. She had charmed her hair brown, but that didn't prevent him from recognizing her.

He hadn't seen her in two days. The day after the drunken night, Scorpius had waited patiently for some sort of owl. Any owl would do. He went back and forth on whether he actually did confess to her and then would go back on forth on whether Rose had completely ditched him or not.

She was touching him arm and whispering in his ear. He knew that she saw him, but a flicker of recognition didn't even pass through her eyes. She was far too good of an actress to make a rookie mistake like that, but he wasn't a pro so he ventured closer.

He got as close as he dared and moved to walk away when he heard a voice call out, "Malfoy? Is that Scorpius Malfoy?"

He turned around to see Benjamin the librarian waving him over. Just splendid. He walked over, thinking the entire time that this was quite the hot mess and focused on making the interaction as short as humanely possible.

"Benjamin the librarian!" he said, as warmly as possible, "It is good to see you. I'm just a little busy-"

"Nonsense!" cried Benjamin. "Meet my girlfriend, Jane Grey." He practically pushed Rose forward to show his prize off and said, "Jane, this is Scorpius Malfoy. He's a trainee in the little Unspeakables program I told you about."

He grimaced. Benjamin was doing his best to talk him down to his "girlfriend." "Hello, Miss Grey, it's nice to meet you."

"Please call me Jane," Rose said with a giggle. He was shocked at how good of an actress she was. There was no hesitation when she shook his hand, no glimmer of the Rose that Scorpius knew at all. If he didn't know she was playing a role, he would have thought that the girl in front of him was not Rose at all, but a lady named Jane Grey who looked an awful lot like Rose.

Scorpius held her hand for a bit too long for Benjamin was soon hurrying him off. "Scorpius, didn't you say you had somewhere to be? Jane and I also have places to be…" He gave her a lecherous grin.

Scorpius generously took the out. "Yes, I did. It was a pleasure meeting you Jane; Benjamin I'll see you in the library sometime."

(-)

Rose dumped Benjamin's body on the bed. She had let the fool give her a few kisses before the potion kicked in. She quickly concocted a memory of them having sex and inserted the memory into Benjamin's head. He was becoming suspicious of the fact that he always passed out after sex, but she reassured him every time that it was marvelous. This little modified memory should be enough to placate him for the time being.

She sat down to write an owl.

M,

Good job today. He didn't suspect a thing.

Meet at 8:00pm at the Eatery. Bring the card.

RW

(-)

Weasley,

Was quite surprised today when I saw you. I have to say you're a better actress than I give you credit for. Have you ever thought about taking the stage?

Is the hair color charm new? Is it permanent? I'll see you tonight at 8.

Scorpius Malfoy

(-)

M,

Hair color charm temporary for Diagon Alley outing. Explained it as a frivolous beauty charm.

Don't say stupid things.

RW

(-)

Shit. Another attack was coming on. Rose collapsed onto the floor and lay there, quietly handling the pain when an owl from Scorpius came flying in. The owl sat there pecking and pecking at Rose the entire time she was laying motionless on the floor. When she could finally manage to move her arms, she gave the owl a great big whack and took the note.

Weasley,

You usually send me the box you want me to give you the documents (or in this case the card) in. Where's the box with hearts all over it? Shall I improvise?

I'm warning you, if I improvise, I'll be giving you the card wrapped in pages of the Daily Prophet.

Scorpius Malfoy

She sat on the floor, her back leaning against the bed while she took in breath after breath, trying to calm herself.

M,

It's a small card. I believe we can slip it to each other without the need of a foolish box.

RW

(-)

Weasley,

Took a while for you to respond. What are you doing? Are you still with Benjamin the Librarian?

Scorpius Malfoy

(-)

M,

He's passed out next to me. If you have the time to be sending me notes, you should spend it on casing out the library for any security glitches. We need to find a way into the hidden section.

I'm going to go through Benjamin's papers. You take the time to go to the library while it's not manned and go through the security. Use the charm I taught you to reveal hidden words and files.

RW

(-)

He smiled.

He knew he was pushing it with the way he was writing to Rose, but by his estimations of her very short owls, he didn't confess his love to her that night. This was good. This was _very_ good. This meant things could return to normal. Yes, he would push and push his crush down until it was nothing and the two of them could resume their working relationship.

He did as she told and snuck into the library and pulled copied file after file on the secrecy spells placed on the hidden chamber. Most of the documents were written in ancient runes, which were probably going to take another month or two to decipher.

Nothing ever came easily in this task, he thought as he attempted to decipher the first line. It looked like the documents were written in code as well as runes, which would mean that it would take even longer to decipher… fantastic.

Unless Rose was a hidden codebreaker as well as a cursebreaker (which he didn't put past her), it would take at least a month to figure out the secrecy spells and then it would take more research to figure out how to bypass them.

* * *

Upcoming:

- Things aren't going to go as smoothly as they have been

- A (chance?) encounter with a member of the Dudley family

- Scorpius grapples with his feelings

- What exactly did he say while drunk?

As always, please review.


End file.
